RIP Go Seigen

by awwducks • 12 years ago

107 17 12 years ago

karamazov3• 12 years ago

For those interested in learning to play, Kiseido Go Server (https://www.gokgs.com) has a fantastic community of users - from total beginners to professional players. It also has an intro you can skim, but don't spend too much time with it - just like programming, the best way to learn Go is to dive in headfirst.

(Don't make the mistake of practicing against a computer to start. AI plays very differently from humans, and you'll develop weird habits.)

If you're in New York and interested in an in-person game, send me an email - ben at datanitro dot com.

MichaelGG3• 12 years ago

The warnings against AI are overstated. It's fine to start off playing AI. By the time you're out of the 20K range, you'll start noticing that you're only winning against AIs your level because they're acting dumb. It isn't good to scare off beginners. Especially as it can feel a bit tense, playing online. AI warning is good for better players, but they should know better anyways. The real issue with AI is finding one worth playing as a beginner, especially on 9x9. Sure, you can take a big handicap, but I'm not sure there are any useful AIs at that level to have even games with.

Another good resource is DGS : dragongoserver.net. An open source turn based (correspondence) Go server. It's easy to play as there's no time pressure, and you can fire up several games at a time.

thangalin• 12 years ago

I concur. There are several computer players on KGS that are rated between 1kyu and 5dan.

Put another way, at my peak I played 5 games against Kyoto's strongest amateur player (~7 dan), holding black. I won 1 and was handily smote (no contest) in the 4 others. After leaving Go for a few years, I've come back to be beaten by the 1kyu AI.

karamazov3• 12 years ago

There aren't any useful AIs to have games with at that level - the mistakes they make are totally unlike how real 30 kyu players play. That's why it's not worth playing them.

Plus, the folks on KGS are friendly, and there are always plenty of other 30 kyus to play with. No need for it to be tense.

sanxiyn• 12 years ago

You should use handicap. Handicap is absolutely normal in Go. Coming from South Korea, I was shocked to find that some western players avoid playing Go with handicap.

muloka• 12 years ago

Another great server is the Online Go Server (http://online-go.com/).

fuzzythinker• 12 years ago

Here's some good reads on him:

http://gobase.org/studying/articles/mioch/goseigen/interview...

https://gogameguru.com/go-seigen/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_Seigen (Almost don't want to post this since the donation is taking over 1/2 the screen now..)

suchire• 12 years ago

I always found the parallels between hypermodernism in chess, shin fuseki in go (which Go Seigen was one of the most prominant proponents of), and modernism in art to be pretty cool. They were all similar in their challenge of traditional theory, they were almost contemporaneous with each other, and they all in the end didn't replace, but instead augmented the establishments they were rebelling against.

xianshou2• 12 years ago

For a fascinating dramatic depiction of Go's life, not only as the best professional of the era but as a Chinese man in Japanese society, watch The Go Master. Here's a good scene to give you the flavor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QybTzI-8YTM

inDigiNeous• 12 years ago

Nomen est Omen? Or was his name changed to Go at some point ? Just interested, couldn't find out this in the article.

xianshou2• 12 years ago

Nomen est Omen indeed. His Chinese name is Wu Qingyuan, and it just turns out that "Go" is how you pronounce his last name in Japanese.

herminator• 12 years ago

He is originally Chinese, and the Chinese pronunciation is Wu Qingyuan (i.e. his name is written the same in Chinese and Japanese, with the characters 吳清源, but the Japanese pronunciation is different).

The character in his name is not the same as the one for the game.

Interestingly, both Japanese 'go' and Chinese 'wu' can have the meaning 'five', but that is yet another different character :)

based2• 12 years ago

http://senseis.xmp.net/

RIP Go Seigen

Related Stories